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Pedestrians on Tejon Street the other day, enjoying a respite from wintry weather.

The Fiona

Another new apartment building downtown, and this one is gargantuan. The picture depicts only a small section of it -- it actually takes up an entire city block that used to contain a bank and the Veterans of Foreign Wars building. It's called The Fiona, not to be confused with the nearly identical apartment building a block to the south (photo below), the name of which eludes me. There are so many of these in the downtown area now, I can't keep track of them anymore and they all look alike. I saw an interesting video on YouTube a while back that explains why all big cities are suddenly plagued with these indistinguishable apartment buildings. I'll link to it below.

And here's why all these new apartments look exactly the same.

Possibly the World's Most Scenic PokéStop

I came across this new "PokéStop" the other day in Monument Valley Park. If you're a Pokémon player, you know what that means. I have to say, this must be one of the most scenic PokéStops in the world. I hope the players who find it pause for a minute to take in the view, like the folks on this bench are doing.

When the Sun's Out, the Top's Down

As you probably deduced from yesterday's Sunday Style post featuring people in shirtsleeves and shorts, it was gorgeous out -- sunny and 60° F. That kind of weather on a Sunday in February brings out the vintage car owners, like this guy and his perfect Chevy BelAir convertible. Not two minutes after I snapped this photo, a gorgeous classic Chevrolet Corvette Stingray cruised past me. It was a perfect day to take the garage queen out for a spin, that's for sure.

Sunday Style!

Spied downtown today! Pink Docs to match the pink shirt. Cute! Overalls are back in again. I think they're comfy right up to the moment you need to pee, then it turns into a whole other situation.

The View

For Christmas I not only received a new Nikon mirrorless body, I also received a 70-200mm F 2.8 lens to replace a very old and failing version of the same lens. Santa (ahem, Pat) was indeed very generous! I really haven't had a chance to test out either of them in the field until today, when I used the lens on an older body to do some head shots for a client. Afterward I wanted to test how it would do on a subject very far off while zoomed out to the maximum, something my sad old lens could no longer pull off. Behold the awesome sharpness of this shot! Of course having such a beautiful subject doesn't hurt, either.

The Resistance

I'm officially actively part of the so called resistance again. It was nice having a decent president for four years, but the time has come once more to fight for our democracy. So today I (along with a clutch of other concerned citizens) went to the offices of Republican congressman Jeff Crank, recently elected to replace the useless Doug Lamborn, who unfortunately held the seat for something like 18 years. Alas, Mr. Crank was not around, but we did have a lengthy conversation with former state representative Dennis Hisey, who is now serving as Crank's state director. He did appear to be listening to our concerns, writing them on a notepad in order to bring them to Mr. Crank's attention. I have no idea if he actually did, but that's the impression he gave us. I asked him directly if we were simply shouting into the proverbial void and he assured us that our positions would be duly logged. I wonder, though.

Each of us had a specific thing we wanted to discuss, and for me that thing was the US Postal Service. Here's a photo of the people sitting opposite me, reflected in the glossy surface of Crank's large conference table. Every one of them had important points and salient questions. We plan to visit Mr. Crank's office again next week. In the meantime, I have postcards to write and emails to send. After all, our democracy is at stake.

Blue and Red

No new photo today. Although I was out and about and had a camera with me, it was freezing outside and the light was mostly crummy all day, so I just ran my errands and scurried home. Here's a shot from December 2nd of last year, taken on the bike path near my old studio in the Old North End. Those look like red leaves, but on closer inspection they're actually cherries. The look nice against the blue winter sky.

Carpe Nivis

You've heard of carpe diem ("seize the day"), but how about seize the snow? My friend Paula lives in an apartment overlooking a park. I was there a few weeks ago and snapped this out her window. It's not much of a park, really it's nothing but a large lawn, but that didn't stop this man and his dog from taking advantage of a chilly afternoon to romp around and have a rousing game of fetch. This park slopes up on all four sides, so there were also a few people doing some sledding although there wasn't really enough snow for it. You can see the trails they left behind. When you live in a climate that's cold half the year, you learn to enjoy winter pastimes, both inside and out.

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall (And Played the Violin)

I've featured our local egg shaped friends on the blog before. There are several of them around downtown, and I think they're all pretty fun. Here's an iteration of Mr. Dumpty playing the violin. He looks like he's having a good time. I hope he doesn't have a great fall off the wall. 😉

Why Yes It's Been Cold

Does this give you a chill? It should, because it was damn chilly when I took it! On Saturday I ventured to Denver with three good friends, and it snowed almost the entire time. And it was cold, cold, cold! This is the house next door to my friend Jennifer's, and that poor plastic duck on the porch looked frigid. I'm not complaining, just remarking -- it is, after all, the middle of February. It's supposed to be freezing! These cold days make me appreciate the warm days even more.

Sunday Style!

Not the sharpest picture, but another great example of senior citizen style nonetheless. I was leaving my surgeon's office last week and this woman (I'd say about 65+ years old) was sitting in the common area near the elevators. I couldn't help but notice her cool Dr. Martens brogues with a heart shaped cutout and animal print. Nice! She kindly let me snap a picture before I ran for the elevator. Like any self respecting Gen X punk, I've had a few pairs of Docs myself; my current ones are Chelsea boots and I love 'em. By the way, I too now qualify as a senior citizen and I'll be wearing Docs as long as they're still making them! I'm stubborn that way. 😉

Belated Birthday Celebration Featuring a Bunch of Middle Aged Sewing Nerds

My birthday was in mid December, but because of gallbladder problems and subsequent surgery, I didn't get to celebrate with my friends until today. The plan was to spend the day in Denver with Jennifer, JB and Teresa, to shop at a fabric store called Allyn's first, and then hit up the Maurice Sendak show the Denver Art Museum. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very cooperative; it snowed heavily, so it was slow going and we had to skip the Denver Art Museum. We did, however, have a fun time fabric shopping! I first heard about Allyn's from watching one of my favorite YouTube channels, The Closet Historian, which features an incredibly skilled Denver area sewist named Bianca. It's not a large building but it is jam packed to the rafters with fabric, a lot of it very fanciful and over the top, and there is a room at the back dedicated to bridal fabric and embellishments. There's a full basement too, again stuffed with bolt after bolt of fabric. If you're a sewist and you're ever in the Denver area, I highly recommend you visit Allyn's.

Rex Tire and Mr. Garman

We were at Rex Tire today because my car needs new shoes. This place has been around forever. While wandering around their lobby I noticed this piece, unmistakably the work of local artisan Michael Garman. If the tiny sign over the tiny door in this diorama is to be believed, Rex Tire has been in business since 1939, which is also around the same time Mr. Garman was born, coincidentally. His sculptures are very popular around here and he was regionally quite famous. Unfortunately he passed away in 2021 at age 83, but his studio lives on as a museum, and the floor above it is designated as affordable studio spaces for local artists (including my friend and second shooter, Joy).

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Well I have no new material for you, since the last few days have been frigid and I've more or less been stuck indoors. It was -3° F (-19° C) last night when I went to bed! So here's a nice shot to remind you of summer. This was taken on August 18th of last year at the City Utilities demonstration garden on the mesa. Tomorrow is going to be warm, but by Saturday it's going to be snowing again. Winter, man. It's predictably unpredictable. I'm not complaining, though, since you can't change the weather. In a few short months we'll be uncomfortably hot.

The Best Is Yet to Come

I mentioned a few months ago that the south duck pond in Monument Valley Park had recently undergone a much needed transformation (an understatement if there ever was one), and that the north duck pond was mid-rehab. My intention had been to photograph the north pond a few days later, but I didn't have a chance to follow through. I've done a few curiosity fueled drive-by recon missions over the winter but that's about it.

I finally did more than just drive past the upper duck pond a few days ago and there has clearly been some progress. At least this pond, though a bit run down for the last few years, was actually still a pond, which is to say it had water in it, whereas the south one sat barren and dry for probably a decade or more. So the act of restoring it involved draining most of what was left of the water, which if I recall correctly wasn't much. You can definitely see from this photo that it's going to be a lot better than it had been. The fact that they've built a low wall around it is already a big upgrade. I can't wait to see the finished product.

And now, for your listening pleasure...

ONEN

If  you look again at the photo in yesterday's post, taken on historic Wood Avenue, you'll see a wrought iron fence throwing a shadow onto the sidewalk. Just like I'm a sucker for a vanishing point, I'm also a sucker for a good shadow, and I couldn't resist photographing this one. The mysterious "ONEN 2015" stamped into the cement was an added bonus. Want to know what that means? It stands for Old North End Neighborhood, which also happens to be my favorite neighborhood in the city.

A Means to an End

I'm a sucker for a good vanishing point. I use them all the time. If you don't believe me, look HERE, or HERE, or HERE. There's definitely something that draws you in when you see a vanishing point in a photograph.

Sunday Style!

There I was at Costco, waiting patiently in line to renew my membership (which had lapsed at least two years ago), when I spied this chic woman ahead of me. She had to be in her late sixties or early seventies, but here's a prime example of never letting your sense of style fade over the years. Love those wedge boots, the long tube skirt, and the drape-y poncho! Also, she had great hair. She definitely looked way better than I did! Costco and places like it are really sort of fashion vacuums, so it was nice to see this lady looking so chic. She probably does this every day. Good for her!

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Today was quite chilly, but yesterday was a perfect day for a walk with Frodo on Wood Avenue. This is my favorite neighborhood in the city and daydream about winning the lotto and buying a home there. A little internet sleuthing tells me that this understated beauty was built in 1909 and is currently worth $1,332,300. I'd better go buy a lotto ticket.

P.S. If you're nosy like me and want to see what the inside of it looks like, here's the Zillow listing. You're welcome. 😉

Nuns on the Run

Okay, more like nuns on a walk, but that doesn't rhyme so cunningly. Hooray for warm weather, an empty afternoon, and not feeling wretched, finally! I took Frodo for a walk in the Old North End and came across these sisters, who were presumably on their way to Monument Valley Park to take advantage of the balmy temps (it was 67° F, extraordinary for the first week of February here). I'm not sure why they were wearing such heavy coats -- it was quite warm despite the wind. These ladies were probably coming from Penrose Hospital, a Catholic facility a few blocks away. Nuns don't live at the hospital but in a building nearby. And hey, even nuns need time to nip away for a few minutes and enjoy a beautiful day.

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A lovely autumnal moment at Quail Lake from October of 2023. That's Cheyenne Mountain in the background.

The Shining

The Ent Center for the Arts, looking mighty shiny on December 22, 2023.

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The Garden of the Gods, December 24, 2022.

In Living Color

October 23, 2021 was a particularly colorful day in Palmer Park.

Sunday Style!

I don't have any new material but that's okay, because I do have this great shot from the prom fashions photo shoot I did in December for Bridal Elegance. Prom clothes are so much better now than they were when I was in high school!

Today's View

Day four post surgery, and I'm still feeling terrible although I've barely even left the bed. But it was a nice day, so I thought maybe I could manage getting outside for a few minutes. Pat drove me to my studio, where I worked for about 30 minutes, then we drove to Tokyo Joe's to pick up some lunch to go. By the time we got there I was exhausted again -- so here's the view from the passenger seat, which is about all I could muster.

About ten or twelve years ago I had some fairly major abdominal surgery, something called a Nissen fundoplication, and for weeks afterward I was weak and miserable. In fact it was months before I felt even close to normal again. I figured that having my gallbladder removed wasn't as dire by comparison, but this post-op feeling sure feels much the same. I hope my convalescence goes much more quickly. I can't afford to be sidelined for much longer.